Spring will arrive this month, and we're excited about a lot of things. This past Winter we learned a few new ways that Kavarna can be a more environmentally sound business and we'll have just about all of them in place by the end of April (more on this in the next issue). This month we're starting with WPS's NatureWise program, which is an excellent opportunity to encourage the growth of renewable energy sources in our region. But that's only the beginning... Hope you have a great March!

—Linda and Alex Galt

Kavarna's Ukulele Night is the day after tomorrow, the culmination of very little planning and a great deal of quiet enthusiasm. I'm happy to say that it seems to be a solid thing. It will happen and it will be wonderful. The evening will begin at 7:30 with 7 confirmed ukulele acts, and probably many more (feel free to bring your ukulele and play couple of tunes!). If you'd like to get a sense of what to expect from a ukulele evening, you can drop by the kavarna.com website and get a full rundown of the details with links to many of the performers' websites. You can also check out Victoria Vox on WLUK Fox 11's Good Day Wisconsin tomorrow morning at 7:30 am.

Here's our secret wish: We want Kavarna's Ukulele Night to be a spectacular success. We want dozens of Northeastern Wisconsin uke players to come out of the woodwork to make joyful music. Because if this night reveals the existence of a secret ukulele underground, then we'll do it again next year and we'll do it even better. Imagine a Green Bay Ukulele Festival complete with workshops and even more performances! That'd really be something...

We've finally seen the light on WPS's NatureWise green energy program and signed Kavarna up for it. This program allows the consumer (residential or business) to direct Wisconsin Public Service to purchase a proportionate amount of energy from renewable sources like wind farms and biomass, instead of, say, from the coal-burnin' Pulliam Plant. This is a fine thing and we're very pleased to be able to help demonstrate that there is a market for renewable energy. Renewable energy sources are viable, they help alleviate pollution, and will move us away from our disastrous fossil fuel economy.

And we're going to take this a step further. We'd like to encourage you to sign up for the NatureWise program in your own home or business by offering you one free coffee, espresso, or tea beverage for every month that you are enrolled in the program. So, sign-up if you haven't already (it really is extremely affordable), and show us your monthly WPS bill! If you're enrolled in NatureWise, your coffee, espresso, or tea drink will be on us. Think of it as a subsidy and you'll have no excuse not to sign up. After all, you would probably have bought that latté, cappuccino, or whatever anyway.

As part of my graduate studies (I'm working on my Masters in Library and Information Science), I'm taking a course on reference services at UW Milwaukee. Just for kicks, and because like a tough question, I've initiated a new service on Kavarna.com called Ask a Future Librarian. So, do you need a little assistance with your research? Need to know who John Henry Miller was? Please don't hesitate to ask, I've set up a web form for the purpose.

Couple of caveats:

1.) All questions will be answered to the best of my ability, but not necessarily ASAP. So, if you need to know the answer right away, you're probably better off using the Brown County Library's excellent Ask a (real) Librarian service.

2.) Any questions and answers that have potential entertainment value will be posted on kavarna.com.

We'd like to pass along this announcement from our friends at the Jamie Wall for Congress campaign (this shouldn't be construed as an endorsement), Alex Z. writes:

"How much money will you be spending on lunch on March 13? $250? $500? I didn't think so. But Jamie Wall's Republican opponent, John Gard, has invited a lot of people to a $250 or $500 per-plate luncheon on that day with his guest of honor, Vice President Dick Cheney.

...

That's why Jamie's hosting a lunch of his own. We'll be selling $2.50 brats outside of our Walnut St. office (there will be vegetarian options too) from 11:30-1 on Monday, March 13 - at the very time that Cheney and Gard are eating they're high dollar lunches. While they're dining for dollars, we'll be organizing for change - and eating a reasonably priced lunch too!"

While we'd like them to be successful, we don't want them to do draw too much of our lunch business, so let me add that Kavarna also has some vegetarian options.

• » March 2nd, State of the City, Meyer Theater, 5:30pm
• » March 3rd, Kavarna's Ukulele Night, 7:30pm -
• » March 5th, Celebrating Women at the Brown County Library, 12:30pm - 3:30pm. This event will feature Alice Skenadore, plus many women artists, poets, etc. For more information call Kim Diaz at 496-9464.
• » March 13th, Jamie Wall's Lunching for Change, 11:30am - 1pm
• » March 16th, Green Bay Green Drinks will be held at Kavarna from 6 till 9 pm. Green Bay Green Drinks is an opportunity for members of the community who are interested in the environment and ecology to gather in an informal setting. More info is here.
• » March 20th, First Day of Spring (and the Kavarna's Peeps Mocha)
• » March 25th, Your last chance to see the Tony Galt Photography Retrospective at Kavarna.
• » March 27th, Kavarna will be exhibiting a show of art made from recycled materials, featuring the work of Margaret Gerhard and Amie Sell. If you are an artist who works with recycled materials and would be interested in taking part in this group show, please contact us at info@kavarna.com.

Phwew, that's quite a lot! Let us know if you'd like to share your event with the Kavarna Community in future newsletters, email us at: info@kavarna.com. We try to get this out within the first week of the month.

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